inhuman

• (sense 1): inhumane

From Middle English inhumayne, from Middle French inhumain and its etymon Latin inhūmānus.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈhjuːmən/

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• Rhymes: -uːmən

inhuman (comparative more inhuman, superlative most inhuman)

1. Of or pertaining to inhumanity and the indifferently cruel, sadistic or barbaric behavior it brings.
   • 2023 February 8, Greg Morse, “Crossing the border... by Sleeper”, in RAIL, number 976, page 45:

     It was replaced by a New Euston, "bold in design and layout and in keeping with a new railway era". Betjeman was unmoved, describing it tersely as "no masterpiece" and noting that its lack of platform seating made it an "inhuman structure" which seemed to ignore passengers.

2. Transcending or different than what is human.
   • 1832, David Herbert Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover‎^[1], McFarland, page 209:

     When he was out among men, seeking his own ends, and “making good! his colliery workings, he had an almost uncanny shrewdness, hardness, and a straight sharp punch. It was as if his very passivity and prostitution to the Magna Mater gave him insight into material business affairs, and lent him a certain remarkable inhuman force.

   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House‎^[2], Houghton Mifflin Company, page 11:

     The organism that embraces this theme in its devious ramifications is the great business house of Dombey and Son, symptom and epitome of selfish money power and warping tyranny. And the special symbol that spells wreckage, devastation, and the unleashed violence of the inhuman force that thus came to possess mankind is that new monster of the mid-nineteenth-century world, heartless embodiment of mechanized energy, the railroad —the same railroad so often pictured in the Punch of those days or in the maledictions of Ruskin as a glaring, headlit engine of destruction, gouging open the green English landscape or the outposts of London, riding down the lives of men, and bringing the smoke and soot of industrialism in its wake: the dragon of a world grown heartless and of a future that promised to become more heartless still.

   • 1913, Romain Rolland, Jean-Christophe: Journey's End: Love and Friendship, the Burrning Bush, the New Dawn‎^[3], Henry Holt Company, page 151:

     However, Christophe, having less penetration than Francoise, said to himself that love is a blind, inhuman force, throwing those together who cannot bear with each other. Love joins those together who are like each other. And what love inspires is very small compared with what it destroys. If it be happy it dissolves the will.

   • 1915, George A. Birmingham, Gossamer‎^[4], Methuen Company, Limited, pages 284-285:

     He sees their actions conditioned and to gome extent controlled by the influences of majestic inhuman powers, the genii of Eastern tales, huge, cloud-girt spirits of oppressive solemnity. In reality most people wear motley all day long and the fairy powers are leprechauns, tricksy irresponsible sprites, willing enough to make merry with those who can laugh with them; but players of all Puck’s tricks on “wisest aunts telling saddest tales".

   • 1920, The Saturday Evening Post‎^[5], G. Graham, page 147:

     “Well, so you are,’ Martha answered. ‘It struck me once or twice. You don’t ook like him, but you’ve got the same voice ind walk and you appear to have the same ‘ort of inhuman strength. Look at this.”

   • 1921, The Independent 1921-12-03: Volume 106, Issue 3794‎^[6], Open Court Publishing Company, page 147:

     For Eugene O’Neill the sea is usually the constant symbol of these eternal realities, the inhuman powers of nature against which men and women must measure their puny strength.

See nonhuman § Usage notes.

• humane

• unhuman

• “inhuman”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “inhuman”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “inhuman”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “inhuman” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.
• “inhuman”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• humanin

inhuman

1. third-person plural present indicative of inhumar

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inhuman (strong nominative masculine singular inhumaner, comparative inhumaner, superlative am inhumansten)

1. inhumane

   Antonym: human

• “inhuman” in Duden online
• “inhuman” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

inhuman

1. third-person plural present indicative of inhumar